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More people globally report living closer to their ‘best possible life’, Gallup says.
Published On 30 Jul 2025
People across the globe are living better lives and expressing more hope for the future, with the share of those “thriving” hitting a record high, a survey has found.
Across 142 countries last year, a median of 33 percent of adults rated their lives as good enough to be considered thriving, a rise of two percentage points from 2023, Gallup said on Tuesday.
A median of 7 percent of adults were classified as “suffering”, down from a low point of 12 percent in 2014.
The results continue a trend of steadily rising satisfaction during the nearly two decades that Gallup has been asking people to evaluate the quality of their lives.
In 2008, in the aftermath of the global financial crisis, a median of 20 percent of adults were classified as thriving.
“The world is not short of significant challenges, from climate change to conflicts and technological upheaval,” said Benedict Vigers, a senior global news writer at Gallup.
“Yet even against this backdrop, more people across more countries say they are living better lives today and are hopeful for tomorrow, and fewer are suffering.”
Northern Europe reported the highest life satisfaction, with a median of 66 percent of adults considered to be thriving, followed by North America and Australia and New Zealand, both of which had medians of 49 percent.
South Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, and MENA had the poorest perceptions of quality of life, with medians of 11 percent, 15 percent, and 17 percent, respectively.
Over the past decade, the percentage of people thriving increased by 20 points or more in 12 countries, including Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia, Lithuania, Estonia and Hungary, according to Gallup.
Gallup said perceptions mirrored steady improvements in the United Nations Human Development Index (HDI), which tracks quality-of-life metrics such as life expectancy and income, though countries that made the most progress did not necessarily see the biggest gains in subjective wellbeing.
To evaluate people’s perceptions, Gallup asked respondents to consider, on a scale of 0 to 10, how close they were to living the “best possible life for you”, as well as where they thought they would be in five years.
Respondents scoring seven points or higher for the present, and eight points or more for the future, were classified as “thriving”, while those with a score of four or lower were considered to be “suffering”.
